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Interesting people, insightful points of view and incredible stories on what’s popping and not popping in marketing, tech, and culture you can use to win immediately. Brands, Beats and Bytes boldly stands at the intersection of brand, tech and culture. DC and Larry are fascinated with stories and people behind some of the best marketing in the business. No matter how dope your product, if your marketing sucks your company may suck too. #dontsuck
DC: Brand Nerds, back at you with a special, special Brands, Beats, and Bytes. As you all know, um, well, depending /on when you're listening to this, I'm going to date this and the producers hate Larry. They hate when I do this, but I got it. Got it dated. It is March of 2024 on on March 8th of 2024 was International Women's Day.
And we have a woman boss in the building. Brand Nerds, what Larry's going to break down for you in a moment is the resume of an exceptional marketing mind. This person has matriculated around different industries and has succeeded at every turn. We, and I'm biased by saying we, we adore her and adore her mind because she has been a client.
Of our business Brand Positioning Doctors, and we learned a lot working with her, but Brand Nerds. That's not what I want you to get excited about on its own. She's also an exceptional human being Larry. She's an exceptional human being and Brand Nerds. You're going to find you haven't already through your career.
You're going to work with really smart people. But frankly, some of them are what my fiancee refers to as butt munches. Okay. They're not that cool to work with.
LT: Good one, Ashley.
DC: Yeah, yeah, that's a really good one. In this case, we've got an exceptional mind. Who's also an exceptional person. And then one other thing, Larry, before I kick it over to you. Brand Nerds, we are about to roll up on March Madness, NCAA action, and there are a lot of people playing, but I really want to see Caitlin Clark.
Okay. I want to see the threes reigned in from half court and logos. In other words, as Barkley would say, I want to see the athletes, the athletes. And, uh, What we have here is not only a corporate athlete and our next guest, but also someone who was actually an athlete at the leap. And on Saturday, actually on Sunday, Brandon, there's going to be the 17th of March.
That is my sister's birthday. My only sibling. That is St. Patty's day. And there's something about the person who you're going to introduce, LT, that's a little bit of fighting Irish. Put him up! Put him up! Put him up! Who do we have in the building today, LT?
LT: Oh, uh, man. D, you've, you've done, uh, Yeoman's work in this, in this prelude sense.
So, DC, we, as you know, have Katie Casey in the house today. Welcome, Katie!
DC: Katie.
Katie Casey: Hi.
LT: So happy to have you Katie. So now it's our chance to, as, as DC alluded to, to take our brand nurse through your, uh, wonderful background. So as DC sort of alluded to, and I'm going to say it point blank, we have someone who we believe is truly one of the best. up and coming brand marketers in the business.
So let's walk you through Katie's very unique background. So Katie grew up in the Jacksonville, Florida area and attends as DC alluded to the University of Notre Dame, Mendoza school of business, where she is also captain of the varsity swim team and earns a bachelor of business administration. And by the way, fun fact, The Golden Dome and swimming run deep in the family, since Katie's sisters, dad, and uncle all attended Notre Dame and were all on the swim team during their time in South Bend, too. So while in school, Katie obtains a couple of marketing based internships, and after graduating, her first job is with Johnson&Johnson, working on Vistacon contact lenses as a marketing associate, and is then promoted to the associate product director for strategic accounts. Katie then joins big agency FCB, uh, which used to be known as Foote Cone Belding that's where the FCB comes, in Chicago, where she gets to work on a number of cool projects, including Big Heart Pet Brands. And specifically dives into planning and executing a retail marketing plan for them with key retailers Petco and PetSmart. Okay, Brand Nerd, so most of the time when we are assigned to a specific project, you really can't see how it may set up your future. And I am betting at the time, Katie didn't see it.
We would also wager that retail marketing plan project for Big Heart Pet Brands, Helps Katie secure her next career move joining Walgreens HQ in Chicago. Her first position is a marketing specialist for pharmacy, where she delivers great work and then begins to move up the ladder first as associate marketing manager, beauty, where she helps grow brand recognition by 13%.
That's a big number Brand Nerds in this world. Following then to a promotion to be marketing manager of beauty. In this position, she develops and executes the Walgreens beauty and personal care strategy, including development of integrating marketing plan, management of beauty enthusiasts, loyalty club, and implementation of Birchbox at Walgreens retail partnership pilot strategy. So additionally, she crafts and executes the plan for generating beauty related content stories, partnerships and instructional material to guide consumers throughout their purchasing life cycle at Walgreens. All sounds interesting, D, but check out these results. In the program's initial year, they gained six million top beauty customers, translating into a 20 percent increase in sales.
That's pretty impressive. So while Katie is doing great at Walgreens, many marketers, to really improve their skills, feel a tug to go work for a large CPG. Again, we don't like to sound all high falutin here, CPG, Consumer Packaged Goods Company. And Katie feels this tug and joins Kraft Heinz as an associate marketing manager, working in beverages, including Country Time Lemonade.
So after a short stint at Kraft Heinz, Katie's pulled back to Walgreens, first as a senior manager, brand and loyalty were among many responsibilities, she revamps digital identity of Walgreens and promotes the launch of new loyalty platform. So again, the more great results with Katie, the team secure a 50 percent improvement in brand loyalty metrics. And the my Walgreens loyalty program generates more than 40 million signups in the first two months of the launch. And they acquire more than 100 million members in year one. Katie is then promoted to a very big job becoming Director of Brand Marketing, overseeing planning and development for Walgreens brand positioning, creative platform and campaign activations, including driving brand engagement through content strategy development and organic social. With this success in this one, in this big position, others come a calling. And after seven plus total years of Walgreens, Katie is then recruited to join Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and this was last year as their global brand director. This includes the World of Hyatt, the brand positioning activations, and the entire guest life cycle.
So Brand Nerds I know it's DC already said this, but we cannot stress this enough. Uh, Katie is a wonderful, great marketer. She's an even better human. You are really going to enjoy this one. Welcome to Brands, Beats and Bytes, Katie Casey.
Katie Casey: Thank you guys so much. I'm so happy to be here and excited to get into it. And. Also DC and Larry amazing humans as well. So I think the work that we did together also biased, but I think that excited to have had our paths cross. And then now that we didn't continue on them together.
LT: Yes. Yes. Thank you.
DC: All right. Brand Nerds. Thank you, Katie. Larry does a phenomenal job of laying out the accomplishments of the people that, uh, grace our show and bless our Brand Nerds.
So everything that Larry spoke is what you have done, Katie, but Brand Nerds, I want to bring you to three numbers in succession, all of them are percent increases. The first example that Larry gave was a 13 percent increase. This is when, uh, when Katie was in, uh, in beauty, she then goes to, uh, to Heinz and then there's a, uh, actually no, and then also in beauty, um, there's the second thing she does is a 20 percent increase.
Then she comes back, um, to, to Walgreens after, uh, being at Heinz. And then working on another thing and a 50%. So 13, 20, and 50, these things keep going up. That's what you call a trend. That's what you call a trend brand nerd. So congratulations on that, Katie. We're going to move to the get comfy section.
It's March. I mentioned March Madness. Basketball and athletes and you are an athlete yourself, although in a different sport and swimming. Don Staley, coach Don Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks, women's basketball team. They have been ranked number one throughout the season. They will go into this year's tournament as the overall number one seed.
Coach Don Staley happens to be someone that works with one of our clients. Here's a quote that she had when, when asked about. The importance of women playing sports, she said it shouldn't just be a consideration, but a necessity. This is what coach downstate he said about about women playing sports, which then brings me to this.
And this is a fine by, um, I think it was you lt made it may have been Jade or Hailey. I don't know. But this fact you may or may not be familiar with this fact, Katie, but a recent study by Ernst and Young found that 94 percent of 94 percent of C suite women previously played sports. As an athlete yourself, a swimmer at Notre Dame. And thinking about the impact that being an athlete has had on your career, please illuminate.
Katie Casey: I'm not surprised by that statistic. Um, I.
LT: That's a crazy statistic though, isn't it, Katie?
Katie Casey: I mean, it is crazy. It is crazy. That's a high, high, high number. Yeah. But I do think there is something about like, correlating the skillset that you learn and have through athletics.
And translating it to the corporate world. I think that swimming's a little unique because I have coached some swimmers trying to get into the job space of it's an individual sport, right? It's you against the clock, but your contribution is a team win, right? You beat the clock. You do your best. You're competitive with yourself and you hold yourself to your standard of your time because it's a time based sport. But you beat the person next to you. That's points for your team. So it's a team mentality, team sport, group sport. Just like corporate. People play different roles. I can't swim breaststroke to save my life. D1 athlete, scholarship athlete, one of the four strokes can't do it. Like not for me, but I played my role. My role was to swim 200 butterfly and win. And so I think there's. The innate competitiveness, but then the innate, like, ability to see the team for what it is, the roles everyone plays, maximizing the potential of the team, that translates to corporate. You have your scope, your job, your this. The better job you do, the more you collaborate with people, the more you understand the roles others are playing, the better everyone does.
And it's a team sport at the end of the day to drive your business. So not surprising. And I think in reflection, I didn't realize how much my identity, my core, how I'm, what I, how I'm driven is based on the fact that I was an athlete for so long.
LT: It really makes sense. And you know, you live your life, right?
That's what you're really saying. You're living your life of swimming as a kid, obviously your family, it's, it's deep in your family. So that's probably like. You were introduced to this when you were even a toddler, right? And, and then there's certain like expectations that go along with it and you obviously went along with it.
But then as you're living your life, you realizing you're looking around you and going, wow, I have some real benefits that never dawned upon me until you actually did enter the business world. Is that right?
Katie Casey: A hundred percent. Like you are living your life in your purview and understanding what works for you.
And that was Even like athlete, not athlete. And when you go from high school to college and high school, you're in class straight all day, eight to whenever. I was in the pool at 5 30 in the morning and didn't leave till seven. I was at school longer than I was actually home and I didn't know any different, that was my life. You go to college. Oh, you can get a break. You can take a nap during class. How did I do that before? And you don't know any different. It's what you're conditioned to do and how you operate. And then you go to the business world and all bets are off. You have structure, but not it's, it depends on the job, your, your boss, this.
So the structure, you keep getting less and less structure as you go through. And then you start to see the traits that you have or the skills that you have translate. Because you were conditioned one way, and then you apply it, right? I was conditioned to be competitive, to problem solve, to figure it out, and I didn't even realize I was doing it.
And then you reflect, you're like, oh, oh, okay. This is, this is what I was doing and this is how I'm doing it now. And that's what I love when I talk to like college kids wanting to enter the workforce, what are the things that no one told you in that moment that you can now reflect on that they can see in themselves? Like you do have those skillsets. It might not be XYZ deliverables of an analysis from your internship, but there's things that translate. And to me, a lot of that came through athletics.
LT: Love it.
DC: All right. I've got a, I've got a roll around in this a little bit more. Katie, great answers. Swimming, as you said, individual sport, it's different than golf or basketball or baseball.
Um, swimming is a sport where momentum is gained by virtue of pushing off of something, whether it be diving off of a block, pushing off of a wall, or pushing off the water itself in order to create momentum. So inside of the sport of swimming, which I hadn't thought about before now, there is inherent resistance, inherent resistance that the swimmer must leverage to move.
Now that factoid that I mentioned from Ernst Young, it said 94 percent of women in C suite positions played sports and they played all kinds of sports, including, uh, swimming. The factoid does not say 94 percent of C suite executives are female. It does not say that that's not going to be the same number, which means Katie, that women in particular, as it relates to going through their careers are going to face resistance.
If you will, that, that men do not face. I'm a girl dad. I've got three daughters. One of my daughters works in the business. She heads the marketing for this podcast, does a great job. So her name is Hailey. What advice would you give to women, whether they play sports or not on how to deal with the resistance that they will face in order to create the momentum they need to move through their careers?
Yeah,
Katie Casey: I think it's really honing in and find like, what is your strength and your sweet spot? If you hone in and focus on that one particular thing that you as a person male female like whoever it is Like you as a person but as a female want to own Focusing in on that to give you your kind of like Center and North Star.
I think generalization, but I think that women tend to take on others, emotions, thoughts, this, what do people perceive of me? And I think that that causes resistance more in the work spot of like, we are conditioned to think of how others perceive us. And if you can hone in on what is the one thing that you want to be known for, contribute that being it.
You can be great at 10 things. You can contribute nine things, but always come back to your center and know who that is and own that piece of it. It can give you the confidence. It can give you the focus. If you're feeling resistant, it can help you personify that one thing to know your worth. And I think that that's one thing that in my career, I don't think I valued my worth and it took me a while to get there.
So I think if you can focus on one thing, then you can anchor it. You can anchor your confidence, anchor your worth, anchor this, and it can keep you focused on what is my perception of, am I, do people know me for being great at this? Is that helping me be good at my job? Then the rest of the noise can kind of dull away. And I think that can really kind of help keep you centered. In the world of wanting to know what everyone cares about you, which I am very guilty of.
DC: Katie is good answer.
LT: It's a great answer.
DC: This is good. So I know Larry, we're staying here a little longer than we
LT: all good.
DC: All right. Thank you. Brother. Just one other thing. Larry, Katie, when did you figure out the one thing for yourself? And what is that one thing for Kate?
Katie Casey: Yeah, um, spoiler, I think it's going to come up also, but I think that for me, I think the one thing that I want to be known for is like building connection.
I think I apply that in a couple of different ways because I like more than one thing. So maybe I'm not taking my own advice, but I think that I'm a very interpersonal like connection person. So to me, I can apply that to how do I know? What do I know about you? How are we connecting? What are we going and doing to move the ball forward?
That anchors me of like the value that I'm bringing to that dynamic. Um, but also then I can apply it to like the work. So like, how am I connecting to consumers? How am I connecting to culture? How am I connecting to this? Like, so there can be an analytic component of a hard skill and a soft skill, but to me, like my superpower things, like my mentors helped me identify as I am a connector where that's personal relationship based or consumer data based.
And so I can apply that in different ways, but that's what I can anchor that on. I know I can contribute. I know if I'm in the room, this is the value I can bring. And that really helps me on then like perception of things, because I know that that's my value.
LT: Oh, D, think about the work that we did with Katie and I have to tell you, Brand Nerds, she's incredible at it in all ways and connecting the dots. That's what she's talking about. And then the human part of connecting people and man, that's deep. And that is you. That's totally you. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.
Katie Casey: It took me a minute. I, I only want to be the soft skill person. Oh, I'm a people person. Like as like, I am a people pleaser. I do that. Like, but back to your point of anchoring it on like the perception of women, like I, Have high energy.
I talk fast. I have all those things. So for me to be a connector felt like a soft skill. I want to be analytic. I want it to be this like, you know, combat that. But then I found the power in being authentically me of that connection and you can apply it to the hard skills and the soft skills. And I think that's what took me longer and like the growth and maturity that I had to do to be like, being a connector is crucially important and isn't the same as the cheerleader, the positivity coach, like it serves a real role and purpose and it's valuable.
LT: And the way you describe it and the way you live it, because you've done this introspection and you know that. It carries weight in both the left and right brain, you know, and, and you're connecting in all facets, right? And man, that's deep, Katie. That's awesome.
DC: Yeah, Katie. Thank you.
Katie Casey: Thank you guys.
DC: All right, LT.
Anything else before we go?
LT: Let's do it. Let's move.
DC: All right, Katie, we're getting into five questions now. And this might be why you mentioned spoiler alert. This may be why you mentioned it. Uh, I asked a question lt ask a question. We go back and forth, until we arrive at five, I am, uh, I'm on the, um, what do they call it in swimming when you were about to go into the pool? Is it the starter block?
Katie Casey: Yeah. Start a block. Yep. Okay. Got it.
DC: I'm okay. I'm on the starter block. I'm going to start a block. Katie, take yourself back to a time where you experienced a brand you could have loved. Engage with the brand, purchase the brand, spend time with the brand, think about the brand, whatever it is you did, but you knew something different was going on with this brand. Your emotions were, were, were, uh, were tapped. Your heartstrings were pulled. You love this brand almost like a first love. What was that brand and or brand experience for you?
Katie Casey: I don't think you guys are going to be shocked by my answer because The brand that I'm going to say is part of my personal brand. Now that's how much I was affected by it. And it's Notre Dame. Yeah. I say that is when I want to think about like my first branding experience, I didn't even know it was happening.
LT: Right.
Katie Casey: And I think was so interesting. So for, for the, for the brand nerd, they, they said in the intro, but I. I'm a diehard Notre Dame fan. My family went there. So I grew up going to football games as one does with their whole family and the tailgates and all the things. But that was what we looked forward to every year. We would go to at least one game. We were living in Philly at the time. So it was kind of hard to get to South Bend, Indiana. Um, but we went as a family and made a point to do that. And like the pride, the enthusiasm, the stories that my dad would tell when we would tour campus. My uncles, et cetera, cousins, we would get so excited. My mom went to St. Mary's, that is, as did my aunts and cousins. So toured there as well. Well, let's, let's be careful.
LT: People, a lot of people don't know this, Katie, and I know, I know St. Mary's was originally the, the female school across the street from Notre Dame, right?
Katie Casey: Yep. Still, still all female, but definitely include
LT: Not to be confused with St. Mary's down the block from where I live in Moraga.
Katie Casey: Very true, very true, especially if we're talking March Madness. So, yeah, St. Mary's that is a female college across the street from Notre Dame and there's some joint programs. So when we talk about my Notre Dame family. aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, you name it, sisters. I'm on Notre Dame and St. Mary's. So it holds a special place in our hearts. But I grew up going to games and I would hear the stories of my parents and grandparents of the connections that they built, the football games, what college is like. So to me as a younger kid, that was college. Beautiful, stunning campus. Camaraderie with your classmates, teammates, because my dad and uncle swam. The ability to walk the whole campus, Saturdays are for tailgates and football games only. So then, um, my family moved, we moved to Florida. I was swimming a ton and a lot of swim meets are held at other colleges. We go to University of Florida. You have to take a bus, you drive, campus is huge, there's buildings everywhere, you don't live on campus always. And I was so taken aback. I didn't understand because Notre Dame was college, right? But I didn't realize is that like that personified it for me, but I was in, I was impacted by the brand. The brand that they cultivated that is around the culture, the faith, the family, the community is what I identified as college. And then as I saw others in the competitive set, if you will, I realized it wasn't college that I liked the idea of it was Notre Dame. It was what it stood for. It was the experiences. And I think DC, the first time we met, you gave a similar like conversation on, on Detroit. And so I To me, understanding that branding can, we joke that we were nerdy and brainwashed growing up and we didn't know.
LT: You kind of were.
Katie Casey: Totally. Yeah. But to see that as a brand, which the university spends a ton of energy on building and cultivating and you look across then like the industry with consumers, like I worked on a hundred year old brand with Walgreens and it was to think about like the history and modernization of it. And so to me, I think The first branding experience to have it be Notre Dame and have it be something that impacted me so significantly. That's the power of a brand. And it was when I was in high school, I started realizing the differences in a category that I assumed. And it was the branding experience for me.
And then Notre Dame is part of my personal brands now in a very big way, as you guys know.
LT: Right. That makes total sense. The, I have to say this too. I've encountered a lot of Notre Dame people in my life. And they're, they're, they're always smart. Like it's a great, it's just a great school. It really is. Really smart folks. But a lot of Golden Domers, unlike Katie, like, in the first 30 seconds you meet them, they'll weave in that they went to Notre Dame.
DC: You're gonna know.
LT: Right? And Katie, it's so part of her brand, but she didn't do that. And then, and so it's even cooler because it, it's, Even, you know, we eventually learned the history with your family and whatnot, which makes it even just super cool. And I love the fact that, um, your, your Florida, your University of Florida story, like, you know, you just thought like, hey, all come Notre Dame is college. No, Notre Dame is a brand. It's a unique college experience, only special to the Golden Dome in South Bend. So I love that, that the difference. College is the category. Notre Dame is the brand, right?
DC: I've got one connection to, uh, to Notre Dame and only one. Well, actually I'll say two. Uh, one is sports related, uh, competitive growing up in Detroit. I was still consider myself to be a Wolverines fan. And way back in the day, there have been storied rivalries between Notre Dame and the University of Michigan goes back. That's what, look, look at Kate.
Katie Casey: I'm not holding it against you, but okay.
DC: That's one connection. But the second one is, uh, when I was at Coca Cola, we did a deal with who I consider to be one of the most iconic and unique humans to ever walk the planet. And his name is Muhammad Ali. And so we were coming to pick him up to have him come back to Coca Cola to meet some folks. And I was fortunate enough to be, um, the lead on putting that partnership together for the Coca Cola Company at the time. Muhammad Ali, uh, had a farm and I, I don't know if the family still has a farm in Burien Springs, Michigan and Burien Springs, Michigan is very near to Notre Dame. Mm-Hmm. . In fact, when you fly into, I think it's South Bend, uh, airport, uh, on a, uh, on, on a, on a private jet, you see this golden dome on the way in.
And I've never had an experience like that. In my life, I have flown in and out of many different airports, some of them public, some of them private, but to see that campus and that dome from above, imagine way back in the day, a drone shot of Notre Dame and this dome. It is stunningly beautiful. Do you look at yes, beautiful
Katie Casey: Campus is stunning and they say home under the dome because like Notre Dame is a family. And again, yes. hate us for football. We can go into football politics all day, but you know, I won't. Um, but it is about family. And that's such a, a tug to who I am as a person, who my family is, how I was raised. Then I, that to me is what made it so special and so important. And even to this day, I go back for almost every home game. Still, my family goes a small weekend for us is maybe 10 people. And so every time that we go to exit 77. You see the dome. You just stop. You smile. You're excited. There's something, there's something so special. DC. I will say I was not rooting for Michigan this year, but my boss, who is one of my mentors, friends I've worked for for years, diehard mission is I am Notre Dame. We're in Hong Kong on a business trip. We're in a expat bar at 8 a. m. to watch the national championship game where we FaceTime my dad to be like, sorry that I'm borrowing Katie as a Michigan fan today, but I like, I had to do it. I mean, we were in the moment. So, but the commitment to the college football is what I could appreciate. Even if it was for Michigan that day.
LT: That's funny.
DC: All right, Larry. Next question, brother.
LT: Okay. So, katie, who has had or is having the most influence on your career?
Katie Casey: Yes. So, I would say, um, my dad, which there's going to be some familial ties as a theme for me relationship wise.
LT: What's your dad's name?
Katie Casey: My dad's name is Donald Casey Jr.
LT: Okay. And shout out your mom too.
Katie Casey: Oh, and my mom. Absolutely. Anne Casey. Um, so my, I'm one of three girls, so I have two sisters, um, and growing up. I think I wanted to be a vet. I like loved animals, but I have a distinct memory of sitting with my dad on the swing set and we were talking about what we, what should we do when we grow up? And he's like, you'd be very good at marketing. I was like, okay, sure. I'll do marketing. Oh, wow. Wow. Just in the, in the moment I was, that's like a miscellaneous memory that I can distinctly remember. I'm sure I didn't ask why I'm sure I wasn't like, but I like dogs and want to take care of animals. But. And he said there's that school is like very long.
So I was like, yeah, I don't and it's science. I'm like, I don't I don't want to do that. And he's like, you like people, you'll like marketing. And I was like, OK. And my grandfather was was in marketing as well for TWA. So he yeah. So he led marketing for TWA and He again reads people. I think like he was like he's the marketer's marketer. Like he very much was about the people, the connection, the insight. And so my dad and my aunt started their careers in marketing as well. My shout out to my aunt, Lynn Casey, who, um, leads trend forecasting and has a consultancy business in marketing as well. I kind of knew that as a kid, but didn't know. I just knew my dad said I'd be good at marketing.
And then similarly,
LT: quick question. Does your dad remember giving you that? It'd be like, was it just sort of an aside thing? You know what I mean? Or
Katie Casey: I'm sure if I brought it up, he'd probably remember. And we've like talked about it. So like, I'll, I'll bring it up. I'll ask him and see if he, if he remembers, yeah.
Do you, do you remember this moment? And. So then I though, I was the one of the daughters, like I would always go for advice, like to my dad, like we would be the ones, good swim, bad swim, break it down what I could have done different, better. And every swim meet, every race, we joke, my little sister will be like, why are you guys here?
Like, we love my family. We're all really close, but she's like, I don't, it was the race. I'm good. Like, I don't need to analyze it to the ninth degree. Meanwhile, I'm the one that would go in with him and we would like go through everything we could have done differently. So I always went for advice. And so I'm starting my first job.
I'm ready. I'm nervous. And my dad was a corporate guy his whole life. He actually just retired. So, Um, what do I get? Second day of work, I get emailed an eight slide deck, which at the time I didn't know what a deck actually meant, but I get six or eight slides. Thoughts for Katie. And he breaks down business values, marketing values, Katie, like Katie key takeaways.
I still have this. I have pictures of it on my phone favorited that by the way, still hold true. Like, and in my head, I'm like, Oh my God, of course my dad sent me slides. Like some people's dads do X, Y, Z. Of course mine sent me slides. It's so interesting because again, so much of who I am is shaped by, by him and the things and the way that he led companies and what he valued.
But he talks about the first slides on leadership and like, what does it mean to be a leader? Then he goes into business values where he's, where he's telling you about like, you need to know the consumer, you need to know the market, you need to know these things. I think like there's one that's like, And God, we trust all else bring data, like do your data, do your analytics, all that.
Then there's the marketing ones where the piece of advice he gave was be better at one thing than anyone else and make yourself indispensable. I was like, I don't know what that is. And I did in my first job, like no one was like looking at this media budget that we got these slides that no one did anything with.
I dug into it, learned it, knew it, made a slide that made it in the monthly exec health report because I cared about it. Right? So, and then there's also thoughts for just Katie. The first one being don't talk so fast. Um, but it ends with be yourself. And so at the time I was like, again, like, okay, dad, thanks for the slides.
But then like he fundamentally from the way I grew up through understanding goal and achievements, like, and then to that, it was super impactful. And then I was fortunate to work at a company where we had crossed paths and he had led and. to hear and see the type of leader he was, where every single person in the building, I did not say every person in his boardroom or whatnot. It was every person in the building played a role in the company and was just as important as everything else. And I knew that growing up. But hearing it, seeing it firsthand, like he is a leader that is tough and fair and would deliver results. But he was a person and a human, which I think impacts the way that I see the people around me and what I should be focusing on.
But also I think that I did learn what type of leader I want to be and like what I want to be placing value on because I got to grow up and see him do that. And I do think it helps me because he was, um, he, he had a very successful career. And I think that helps me as I grow in my career talking to leaders and very important meetings and all these things.
I know they're all human. Yep. I know they're all a person that happens to be in this role because I got to grow up seeing that and he got to grow up seeing that with my grandpa. So I think that that has had a very lasting impact on, on my career.
LT: Well, Don gave you the blueprint and he lived it too. So you didn't, you know, you had what, what we all learn in different ways.
And you had both the visual and the experiential part of it, right? And then you had the ability to then imbue it to who you are.
Katie Casey: Yes. And by my own way of doing it. And I think that that's what he ended with. Be yourself. Like there are strengths that I have that he didn't. And so I don't go into dad, this is what's going on at work. Here's this exact situation. But I'll be able to do thematics of things and how do you tackle it. And I have that sounding board, but also kind of the point I made with the Guardian 2, I grew up and was conditioned in that way and didn't know the gift that was being given to me from a corporate perspective of the skills that I was learning day in and day out.
Yeah, that also is happening in the human level and the relationship level.
LT: Wow, I don't think there's anything much to add unless you have something to add or you want to go to question three.
DC: I don't have anything to add, but I do have a quick comment or question. You mentioned your grandfather, what's your grandfather's name?
Donald Casey. Oh, ah, he, he, oh, he's Donald.
LT: Okay. He's Casey S Senior.
Katie Casey: He Casey. Okay. Casey Senior. And then Donald Casey Jr. Is my dad.
DC: Got it. Okay. And then Donald Jr. And did you say that your grand, your Don Donald, Donald Casey s senior. Your grandfather, did you say he worked at TW? twa?
Katie Casey: The airline.
DC: The airline.
Okay. I remember twa. Okay. Got, okay. That's what I thought I heard. Okay. Uh, wow. Legacy. All right, I'll go to the next question. Larry talked about the 13%, the 20%, and the 50%. All of these are quantitatively, uh, uh, examples of what you were able to do in growing businesses, rate and growing revenue outstanding and or a particular part of the business.
So that means you've had a lot of W's. Dubs. But we don't want to know anything about those dubs for this next question, Kate. We want to know about your biggest F up, and even more important, what you learned from said big F up.
Katie Casey: Um, I like to win. I'm a little competitive. I'm a little competitive. I've tried to mellow it out.
I've been told to, to tone it down sometimes. So I like to win and I don't like to lose. So I think FUP was a little, a little tough, tough for me. I think that for me, I think one of the biggest FUPs in learnings was about making a decision for the wrong reasons and that for me or me was a career decision where, by the way, I epically failed.
So, like, this was this was an F up for me. So, um, I was at a juncture in my career where I was very frustrated. and didn't have that gratification of what's next. I'm a competitor. I'm a goal achieved type person, right? That swimmer, that athlete in me. And I thought I could do better. And I thought I could extend my career in a new way and felt very confident that I could, but I kind of made a rash decision and made it for the reasons of being frustrated versus through the reasons of like, this is the best next thing for me.
And so when I left Walgreens to be like, of course I can do this. Of course I can figure things out. It, I did not, I, I failed. I was really not good at my job, which had not happened for me and like before. And by that, I mean, there was financial reporting that I was responsible for. There are models and analytics that I was responsible for that.
I did not have the skillset and I'm a confident, know my worth, right? I'm a connector person. You can't connect your way out of spreadsheet. The numbers, the numbers don't add like that. That is. And so for me, I think I rushed out of something from and made a career decision that impacted a lot of my life and like how I like what I was doing for the wrong reason.
Um, I think what I learned from that is to fail fast and have the ownership and accountability. that it's okay not to be good at something, which for me is not in my vocabulary, not in my DNA, not in anything like that is, I'm not good at hand eye coordination. So I just don't play those sports. I swam, but it was not in my DNA to not be good at something.
So for me, I mean, I, it was a very short stint and I, and I am very fortunate to have amazing mentors and people. That I, I ended up going back to Walgreens where like, I knew what impact I could make, but I made a decision for very much the wrong reason, some selfish, and it was a growth. It was a very big growth moment for me on understanding what I can and can't do, understanding what it means to not be successful, understand what it means to ask for help when you don't know how to do something that's hard.
Asking for help? You don't want to do that. You want a new job? You want to, you want to come in. You want to create your own brand. You want to know those things. Asking for help? It's hard. So, identifying weaknesses and failures and figuring out what help looks like, either internally or through mentors in your network, was really difficult for me.
And I mean, it all worked out in the end, I think. So it's positive, but like I made a big personal mistake and I did it for the wrong reasons and I got some good learnings out of it and some good growth, but I had to learn that to, I had to learn to actually fail and be very bad at something and ask for help and then figure out what's right for me and advocate for that.
And what's right for me was not being there anymore.
LT: Katie, thanks for sharing that. That's deep. And again, knowing you a little bit, um, you are the type of person that has great confidence and it's earned confidence because you, you know, as you talked about being a connector and talked about, you know, just tackling assignments and that's what you do. You you're a, uh, for lack of a better way to say it, you're a get shit done person.
And, and, but in a thoughtful way, right? And so for you to then you're frustrated, you make a rash move and then encounter all of this, it might have been the best thing that happened to you, Katie.
Katie Casey: I agree. And so like hard to say is an F up or not, but you need those moments to grow. And, but I like, I mean, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, not the happiest person. And it was, it was a big growth moment. It was hard, but also like, to literally stare at an Excel spreadsheet and be like, I do not know what I am doing. Right. I am not capable of delivering this assignment because I do not know how to do it.
LT: You needed Jeff Shirley on that.
Katie Casey: Oh, yeah. Oh, don't worry. I have some, I have some good finance friends.
I'm like, someone, what am I doing? Um, but no, I think like it, and it's also interesting that Trust your network. Trust your friends. Trust your people. Learn, like when you're interviewing, you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you. You start, I learned a lot from that experience. And I also learned humbly in a couple ways. But also like, I mean, it's just gonna be like, of course I got this. I can do anything. I can figure this out. And like, I got it.
LT: Yep D i'm gonna throw it to you, but I just want to make another quick point to the brand nerds The other really awesome thing that katie did here. She learned all of this And she had the humility to understand all that was going on and then to go back to Walgreens, which, um, I wish I would have done the same thing when I made a bad move and leaving Coca Cola. I left for different reasons, but I should have been smart enough and humble enough. And I wasn't to do what you did. And by the way, You know, in reading this and again, talking to you, you came in to Walgreens at a better position than you probably would have if you stayed there. So that all worked out really well.
I don't know that I'm, I'm guessing that, but it's, it seems that way, but I want to point that out the humility for you to say, I, you know, I see what happened here and I'm going to go back to what's best for me is a, is a really cool thing too.
Katie Casey: And I think like going back to the, like. Knowing what I can contribute and where I make an impact, which by the way, also helps me feel fulfilled.
And I, again, have amazing mentors. I know I mentioned my dad, but like my current boss, who is also my boss, um, at, at Walgreens, Lori Blair, another kick ass woman leading the world of Hyatt and, and is amazing. Um, she knew I could drive impact and she knew what I had to contribute. And I. Like I lost my self confidence.
I lost my worth. I'm like, was I not that good? Was it just the situation I was in? And that took a lot of learning. And I think again, like it's, it's building the relationship that you have, trusting your mentors, trusting what does growth look like for you, but also what are the aspects that you, what do you want to learn and grow in and knowing what you don't want to learn and grow in is just as impactful as what you do.
And everyone says that. But living it to really then value those things was, was a great experience. I wouldn't say I felt that in the moment, um, but, you know, reflection is, is very powerful.
LT: Oh, yeah.
DC: Katie and LT, our podcast, and Larry knows this, are only as good as the vulnerability of the guest.
LT: Yup.
DC: That is maybe the best answer we have ever had to that question. We've done more than a hundred of these podcasts. Yes. So. When you said it's okay not to be good at something that's like a mic drop. Yeah, it is okay.
Katie Casey: And I was and shock those words came out of my mouth. Now, now I know that took some something.
LT: It is. That was your path, Katie, that you had to live.
DC: All right, Larry. I'm a little emotionally shaken by this whole discussion on this because it's so good. I mean, it's in a good way. So Larry, uh, next question, bro. Yeah, let's do it.
LT: Okay. So Katie, uh, you know, technology is such a key component to our world as marketers right now. So when you think about tech and marketing, the confluence of them, can you tell us where you think marketers should lean in or best leverage tech?
Or go to areas that you think that they should be leery or simply avoid. What say you?
Katie Casey: Yeah, I think I have like a, uh, hybrids. So, I'm going to say a weird word that I don't know a ton about. Like, you know, AI, from a tech perspective. I think as a general marketer, Seeing the trends of AI, seeing what was coming up, I didn't dabble in it too much, because I didn't need to, um, and I'm like, this feels like something in the world that when I need to know about it, I'll know about it, when I need to apply it, I'll apply it, but like, I personally wasn't actively seeking out how much disruption it was having and the future trends of it and all of that.
Then I come to, I come to Hyatt. Um, and when I joined here, we have a commitment to AI and using it to help build and develop. And I thought that was interesting. Thought it would be a nice, you know, check mark of a goal and some, you know, product or analytic org didn't really think I would affect me. And so what's interesting though, is I've actually seen the benefits of some of it in some of the work that we're doing. We do self service data, um, and, and democratize that because we are a hospitality company that has hotels and hotels have different ownership models. We have owned, managed, owned, managed, and franchised different models of hotels. So we want all the hotels to have their information at their fingertips and corporate. We want to have ours. And so we have data that is, um, in a giant cloud, very user friendly, but you have to kind of know what you're pulling and why. And we use AI. In the search function that instead of pulling together your dashboard, you can type your different queries and it helps populate it. And I watched it. I have a demo later, actually today on it. And I, I was blown away that that was what AI could do, I think is a consumer and a marketer, like, Oh, Chat GPT and taking over people's jobs and what's the creativity of humans and agencies and all of that, and we're like, so scared and leery. So I think that, like, to your question, Larry, on, like, lean into or stay away from, I think lean into in the right way.
Right. As marketers. And so, like, I, on the front end, interacting with it more on the consumer side of ChatGPT, doing travel itineraries and all of this fun stuff, and I would see more of the creative marketing side of, like, Taking our jobs or what is the value of the human part of it that I was like, yeah, no AI like that's How is that going to impact me?
To then seeing AI being able to help search functionality to better organize data in a meaningful way. I was like, wow, that's powerful. So I think there's like two things here. I think, what is your role in marketing? What are you being tasked to do? And where does tech support that in a meaningful way versus a flashy substance way?
And I think like leaning into tech in the right ways versus the, um, in the ways that, you know, like. We blow stuff up as culture, right? Like we will take one thing, we blow it up, make it this whole shiny object and freak out. There's so many more facets to it. And I think like I took AI on the lens of consumer of like, this is what it is, but there's so many different layers and it can help you.
LT: What you're saying is, you know, there's a lot of stake there. Um, and there's the sizzle too, that, you know, we as marketers and whatnot, that's out there that the flashy stuff that people see. But you need to focus on what the stake is, right? And and really find that that's what you really I think I'm gleaning what you're saying.
Katie Casey: Much, much better said to summarize. Yeah.
LT: Yeah. By the way, shameless plug. We did a, um, we did a show a few weeks ago with a gentleman by the name of Seth Greenberg, who has been a tech CMO and most recently of a, of an AI company, and we delve into it pretty deeply. Um, so, Brand Nerds if you missed that, when you want to check that out, if you're interested. Interested on the Ai said, D. I know you've got some thoughts here.
DC: No, it just that. Thanks for mentioning the set podcast. It demystifies A. I all right. So, Katie, what we've come to learn about you and working shoulder to shoulder with you, and this goes back to your ability to be a connector is you have an ability. You've shown that demonstrated that to us. To look at something that might be way on the left on, on the right and go, Hmm, that may not seem like it has a connection to this thing. That's way on the left, but you can find a way to go. Okay. Here is how they may connect. Let's go to AI. So AI is this new shiny toy.
And, um, and, and shiny toys can sometimes become distracting. They can be useful, but they can also be distracting. How are you able to maintain the connection between in your work? AI as this shiny toy and the fundamentals of marketing.
Katie Casey: 100, it's a, it's a great question because I, before seeing a real tangible application of value of using AI to help simplify data, that helps marketing.
Marketing is data. We saw the sizzle, shiny object of look at AI building creative, which is a knife to the heart to marketers creative around the world. Everyone, everyone thinks they're a marketer. We all know that we all have to dance that dance. Then how many times is a marketer? We said to our creatives, I'm not a copywriter, but.
LT: Right?
DC: Oh, it's, it's, it's always the butt. It's always the butt.
Katie Casey: Always. And so when I first saw that AI stuff, I was like, well, this is terrible for marketing. I was like, what role is this going to play? Shiny object flash in the pan. It's going to come and go then to then see a tangible application of it not being what we're seeing of AI manipulating images and hurting people's reputations and, you know, writing scripts for movies and all of that, that was the shiny object.
There's layers beneath it and I think if you guys demystified it, like educating yourself, I didn't educate myself. I scrolled past it as a consumer being like, okay, cool. I don't want this to become a part of my life because I don't want it to impact my agency relationships, marketing relationships, the layer of humanity that we bring that's a level of magic that doesn't occur through, through robotics.
Like, I don't want this to impact my day to day. And I think it's so far out from doing that. And I was like, this is a shiny object flash in the pan. Then I think. The, the, the stake versus the sizzle I think is there's tangible applications find the right one for you and it doesn't have to be what is being blown up and magnetized as like the one facet.
And I think that's doing your homework that's understanding that's working with your data and analytics team or tech teams to understand where could that help them? And in turn, where can that help you as a marketer? Because you work cross functionally, so it might not be the flash and the flashy part of how it could impact creative, which we all love as marketers.
That's the fun, sexy part of our job. But then there's the work with your data teams, work with your tech teams, understand what they're doing and their roadmap, and how will that help your marketing strategy? And that's where I think there's more application.
DC: Thank you, Katie.
LT: Great stuff.
DC: Any more LT?
LT: Nope. Good stuff.
DC: Final question, Katie. Thank you. Sorry, LT. Final question. What are you most proud of?
Katie Casey: Um, so I think that what I'm most proud of is. My relationships, which I think is back to the connector side of me. I very much value the relationships that I have with my family, with my friends, with my co workers.
We have a saying here where your co workers become your co people. Um, I think that for me, I talk about my strength as the ability to connect dots, connect people, connect with people. But then I think when I look at the things that I'm proud of, what kind of spans the personal and the professional is that relationship.
I put a lot of energy in and I put a lot of effort into that, but then it also returns like back to me. I, love and I'm super close with my family. And when I say that it's my immediate family, my cousins, my friends that are family, like we, we roll, we roll pretty deep, um, but my friends, but then the relationships that I've made through the career that I've had, I made relationships with you guys, with you guys. And it has continued. It was, yes, we're working on a project as a client, but then we built a relationship, the people that I've worked with that. We are no longer in the same company that we actually became very good friends, like family there who are in my life. And so I'm really proud of those relationships. I think on the personal level and the professional level, um, and it's, they're all super important to me, but then also I'm proud of them.
LT: D, would you expect anything different from Katie? And I just love that because Katie knows herself so well and Brand Nerd, she lives it man. Like relationships. Are so foundational to our lives as humans.
And Oh, by the way, it can help you in business and then help you in your life. But for Katie, it is, uh, it's not hard because it's who she is. Right. And so you should be proud of that because you live it all the time. And, um, and you know, we're very lucky. We get to meet a lot of amazing people and, um, we have a lot of great work that we do. And I think we're pretty good at relationships too. And we know the people that we, that are, that, that we connect with. And we knew that instantly with you. And we knew that wherever our journeys would go, that we would just be in touch with you. As a matter of fact, I think I, once you told me about your job, I remember texting you and say, we'll leave you alone for the first six months. We're going to get you on this show, leave you alone, get yourself. But, you know, and, and that's just sort of given, and, and I just love that you, you recognize that and you're, you're proud of it. You should be.
Katie Casey: Thank you.
DC: LT, I think that's a, that's a mic drop on that section.
LT: Yeah, I think so too. All right, Katie, we're, uh, we're hitting the next segment and this is What's Poppin. What's poppin Dee?
So Katie, this is our chance to shout out, shout down or simply air something happening in and around marketing today that we think is really good fodder for discussion.
And I know you got something to hit us with it.
Katie Casey: I do have something and I'm, and I'm super curious for both your takes, especially do you see with some of your background. So my kind of thought we just had Oscars right Oscars just happened. Um, and what I've noticed as a consumer, but also as a marketer is.
The change in movie industry and how they market and the role that brand partnerships can play. So movie industry has changed. Theaters, COVID, all the things. Budgets aren't what they used to be. Box offices aren't what they used to be, I'm assuming, not my industry. But then you look at movies like Barbie where they have something, they have a commodity, they have their IP.
They can give that IP away for trade. They can monetize it. They can do all those things. And then brand deals come in and they get to use that IP to be culturally relevant, which what brand doesn't want to be culturally relevant. That's as a marketer, you're trying to find the moments from a blockbuster movie.
Hey, you're trying to get marketing dollars and marketing exposure. So I guess my question and kind of like discussion for fodder is like, In this industry, is there value for the brand? Like, what value do the brands have to be culturally relevant with this IP? And what are your thoughts on the movie industry being like, yep, we have our IP to sell or give away for free and have brands do our marketing and use their budgets for us?
LT: Oh, this is a good one, Katie. D, I'd love to hear your, your, your, your on point here because of, uh, your wonderful background.
DC: This is juicy. Phenomenal question, Katie. Thanks LT. Brand Nerds, I'm going to have to go back before going forward and share knowledge that I had when I was working in the movie industry, but it's been some time.
So a few concepts. First is when I was working in the movie industry, each film had its own P and L. It was handled as a separate thing and all of the films, PNLs rolled up into the entire studios of PNL, but each film had its own PNL.
LT: So it's like its own brandy. That's what
DC: it is, its own brand and, and, um, and production at the time.
So that's one, one piece there on PNLs. The second is in the movie business at the time that I was working in it is that The production budget particularly on larger tentpole films was one to one with what was called the P&A budget So that's the marketing budget. So if you spent 200 million dollars in production on the film, you typically spend about 200 million dollars in marketing on the film so over time What these studios have done, and Katie is right on it, is that they said if I still want to get 200 million of marketing and promotion for the film, this film that has its own P and a and I only want to spend 150 million, but I still need 200 million out there.
I'm going to do brand partnerships that then offset the studio's expense in P&A. And still reach the amount of, uh, impressions and budget, if you will, in order to promote the film now at that time, um, and also the second concept. The third concept is around windows. So in the movie industry, there are multiple windows.
There's the theatrical release. And then when I was in, it was like DVDs. Now it's streaming and streaming. It goes through certain things like premium streaming where you pay, and then it, then it gets into subscription base. And then you see it on the airline, all of these different windows, if you will.
So those windows have now collapsed. Those have now collapsed. Let's go back to the P&L of the film. So when a film is launched theatrically, the total box office is typically 2. 4 to 2. 8. The multiple of opening weekend. So you most films fall in that range. Most films fall within that range. So what was, what was happening at that time is that everything was about getting the film to open big.
Right, right. It's not about the second week per se. It's about weekend number one. Okay, so when you roll all of that up, Katie, I'm arriving at a point, my mom would often say, baby, are you arriving at a point? I'm arriving at a point, Katie. Is that what these studios were doing then Is they were trying to figure out how they could get the biggest bang for the buck in opening weekend.
And part of that was brand partnerships. Yeah. Today, I think it's a little bit different. Now, what these brands are recognizing, the smart ones, is that all these studios really want is access to your media budget. That's all they really want. As long as your media budget talks about this film to get butts in seats on opening weekend, the studios say, thank you very much.
That's all we need. Yep. However, these brand folks are getting smarter and they're saying we need to do something that's integral, that makes sense for our brand leading up to the movie and after the movie's released number one and then number two is I think the studios have also gotten smarter to say if we do strategic brand partnerships, then the theatrical release becomes a tactic in building the larger brand called this movie or this movie franchise. So that's what I think is happening now, relative to what was happening when I was working in, in the business. That's my thought.
Katie Casey: Yeah.
DC: Larry?
LT: Yeah, no, I, that's, D, you broke that down great. I also want to add for the brand nerds and Katie, I'd love to, I'm going to throw this back to you because I, I'd love to hear what's happening in this realm.
Uh, the studios have been doing brand partnerships For probably about 50 years, it's been taken. And the most famous example is in E. T. That's in the early eighties. Uh, the M& M's brand manager was offered the opportunity to be in E. T. And they said, nah, thanks. We're okay. They went with Reese's Pieces, and that M&M brand manager lost, lost their job.
Oh yeah.
Katie Casey: That's crazy.
LT: Because of that situation, right? Because it was really written for M& M's, for E. T., so, so, it has that kind of history. So I just wanted to give brand nerds the, and by the way, you're paying for play there. And it's, we've been all, Katie, DC, and I have been on all different sides of this.
What's it worth? And it's very hard to extrapolate. You don't know. Is this movie that people know Barbie is going to be the sensational hit? It was, you know, it's really hard to predict that. Um, so Katie throwing back to you. I'm sure you and Hyatt presented with a lot of these kind of opportunities. And I think that's where you're going here with this question, right?
Like, so how do you evaluate that? How do you evaluate what it's worth? And should I affix my brand to this brand that you think this movie is going to be a great opening, but oh, by the way, you also don't know, Brand Nerds, this hat, this is underneath, behind the velvet ropes here, when you decide to do a brand partnership, they show you the script, they show you how you're going to be portrayed and whatnot, but sometimes it can go, it can go off, And you know, you know, if something bad happens under your logo or whatever.
So there's a lot of things that you're sort of, uh, trying to think about as you're evaluating these things. So long with, sorry, Katie, I'm also arriving at a point. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Where are you guys now at high at evaluating these things in 2024?
Katie Casey: Yeah. And I think that, and this happened to me in a past life too. I think there's been a couple times where. You get approached for specific partnership deal, brand deal, et cetera. I think it was like from an evaluation standpoint, it's. Brand positioning, like, is this, is this thing movie placement aligned to what you're trying to accomplish? Yes or no? Like, full stop.
Like, what, what value does it bring? I think that though, even saying that is tough because you see In a movie, it could be an actress or an actor with a big cache. Like you see cultural relevance that you want to attach your brand to. And I think that that's easy, like, Oh, this makes sense. But you got to start with the brand.
Like, what are you trying to accomplish? What are they trying to accomplish? Is there an alignment that you can make something more of this? And I think that's the hard part. And I think that. They're a brand too. And in those instances, they get to call the shots, like the studios, the movie. It is their IP. It is their brand. It is their thing that you're being attached to, and are you okay with that? And then what can you do to make it unique to you? Um, and I think that's how you kind of go through that evaluation criteria. And I think there's been a couple in past lives and now where I have gotten caught up in the, oh, this, this makes sense. This could be cool. We can make something with this, but you really need to do the strategy work and homework. And it's on you is then the brand that's being partnered to make it what you want it to be. And that's work. It's hard. It's not your brand. It's your brand fitting into someone else's world. And do you have the time, energy resources to do that, to make it meaningful to your brand?
Is I think a hard evaluation criteria that like, I, I honestly haven't found the sweet spot yet, but I, there have been some opportunities where I, as a marketer and as a consumer get caught up in the cultural relevance, cause that's what every brand's fighting for right now that could occur and ride the coattails of, but I think you had got to go back to like, what is this doing for my brand, my consumer, um, and does it make sense?
And do you have the time and energy to, to put the effort into it to make it work?
LT: Oh, this is great stuff, Katie. This is amazing stuff. We knew you'd be a great show. It's even better. Um, and unfortunately we're coming to the close and we're gonna sum this up now. So, um, I lead off and there's so many learnings, um, but I'm gonna give you seven quick ones before I throw it to DC.
So, this one, number one Brand Nerds oh my god, this is so huge. Like Katie did, you gotta do some introspection. It's good. And find your one thing, that one thing that you own and that you can then translate into what you can bring to your, to the business world, to your job now and going forward. That's huge.
That's number one. Number two, while it may not be your thing, you got to figure out how you can be a connector too. Uh, you might not be as adroit as Katie, but you got to figure that out too, because that's central to your success. That's number three. Like Don's advice to Katie, make yourself indispensable.
Look around you in your job like Katie did early in her career. She saw something that people weren't doing and she went and she just went and did it. Go be indispensable. Number four, when you're frustrated, take a deep breath and don't make a rash move. Take that deep breath and don't make that rash move.
Number five, understanding when to ask for help and how to ask for it is so critical. In both your professional life and in your personal life as well six trust your network trust your people and the last one Katie was just talking about as it related to the movies Always make sure your brand strategy is front and center in everything you do. Don't get, uh, swayed by what might be the sizzle that we were talking about before. Always keep in mind your brand strategy. Those are my seven. They're awesome, Katie. Thank you.
DC: Wonderful. Wonderful, Katie. Um, we really want to hear what you have learned from this experience. So I'm going to give a truncated version of what I typically do. And what I do here is try to make a summarization of this unique human before, before us. So, uh, I'm, I'm a give it to you as, as I have made a connection to you. The first thing is, uh, when you answered the question about who's having or had the most influence on your career, um, you talked about, uh, your father talked about, uh, Dan, uh, Casey and then on Casey.
Excuse me, Don. I'm sorry, Don. Thank you, Don.
LT: Don't mess up Don's name, though.
DC: We don't want to mess up dad's name. Don. Don. And then on the third question, when we asked about your biggest F up and what you learned from it, you talked about It's okay to not be good at everything. And also it's okay to ask for help when you don't know.
And I began to think, man, don't know exactly when you got that lesson for the very first time, but maybe Don's eight page deck. Set you up to open your mind for that. The second thing is that I don't know if you know this or not, but the word anchor for you came up multiple times. I wrote, I started counting them and I, I went to five and I stopped and I think it kept going.
And you said one of the anchors for you is knowing yourself. This is one of LT's point. And you talked about knowing yourself is you're a connector, you connect dots, you connect people, you connect family. It's what you do, Katie. It's what you do, an anchor. And then number three, you talked about your grandfather, Donald Casey, not to be, not to be confused with Don Casey Jr.
And you mentioned the fact that, uh. Don, your father said you should work in marketing. He was a successful leader. And Donald, your grandfather was also a successful leader. And he worked, Donald, your grandfather at TWA. Planes fly in clouds. Couple things here. You said anchor. What does an anchor symbolize?
Hope, steadfastness, calm, and composure. What do clouds symbolize? Clouds can symbolize transformative experiences. You, I believe, uh, Katie, are the epitome of connection between anchors and clouds. That's what I think makes you unique to anyone else walking this planet, in my view.
Katie Casey: That is powerful. You're, you guys make me feel powerful.
And I think I just, I want to say a huge thank you and kudos. And I think even going through this and the introspective work and whatnot, it wasn't as active. And I think in working with you guys on the client side, where we talked about brand positioning so much. Helped me crystallize my own brand positioning, which to that you do the homework you do, you go back, you do all of that work.
And I think that that for me, like, was it was a huge part of that growth, that learning. And so I think like huge, thank you to you all. And it wasn't one big introspective moment. I think it was like. Seeing those skill sets come to life and being able, like, do you see there, we talked about like the importance of our own personal brand.
And I think there's times that you take that for granted or you make assumptions versus doing the work on it. And I think like when you piece the narrative, you piece the story. I know who I am because of all of those things that occurred. And like, that's what makes a brand a brand. And that's what like, like allowed me to figure out my brand positioning and, and what those things are and those strengths.
LT: Deep. Katie, before we sign off, anything else you want to share that you've learned from this wonderful conversation we've had with you today?
Katie Casey: I mean, I think one, like, The power of connections and the power of brands. I think that, yes, I'm saying that's, that's it for me. But I think I learned a ton of that from, from the two of you.
So one huge thank you, but also huge learning. I think that, um, the other like takeaway for me is that so much of the things that you learn, how you grow the person that you are translates to what you do. And I think the world that we live in things merge and being yourself and being true to that works and helps you, grow personally and professionally. And I think that that's, that's a sweet spot and it feels therapeutic. I went through all of those things and I think reflective for me to see how each of those things that group made me grow. And my answer is all interconnected because it's so part of who I am. And it was a great reflection point for me to see all that.
So I really, really appreciate it.
LT: Ooh, that's so true. I hate signing off when we have such a great show, but it's time for that. So thanks for listening to Brands, Beats, and Bytes. The executive producers are Jeff Shirley, Darryl "DC" Cobbin, and Larry Taman and Hailey Cobbin, and Jade Tate and Tom Dioro. That is he. And if you do like this podcast, please subscribe and share.
And for those on Apple podcasts, if you are so inclined, we love those excellent reviews. We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we look forward to next time. Where we will have more insightful and enlightening talk about marketing.